


Trapped

by enderstorm



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Steven And Lapis fuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-16 04:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21265022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enderstorm/pseuds/enderstorm
Summary: In another universe, Steven freed Lapis from the mirror, and she fled, terrified. In this one… Steven tried to free her from the mirror, but something went wrong. He stumbled as she was reforming, the force of the mirror breaking tripping him over. He smashed into the reforming Lapis, and they went inside each other.And they can’t separate.





	1. Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can't get away from you, can I?

“Come on! I want to help you! What can I do?” Steven shouted at the mirror. It showed him a picture of himself taking the gem off of the back.  
  
“Steven!” Pearl yelled from the distance. He flinched, he didn’t have a lot of time.  
  
He grabbed the cracked gemstone. He pulled and pulled, concentrating his strength. Water pooled underneath his feet in an arcane pattern, the gemstone _eager_ to come out.  
  
With a loud _POP,_ he wrenched the gem out of its socket. He watched in awe as it floated over to the water, and began to form.  
  
Then the mirror exploded, the shock and force of it sending him staggering forward into the gem. He expected to bump into her, and to have to apologise. But he didn’t feel anything. There was no impact, he just felt warm and wet, like he had stepped into a hot bath.  
  
He clutched his head, feeling a headache coming on. He brushed his hair out of his eyes- Wait, what? His hair wasn’t this long.  
  
He looked at his skin. It was purple.  
  
He looked at his reflection in the ocean. It wasn’t him anymore.  
  
“Steven?” His mouth asked. “It’s… Steven, right?” He felt his eyes looking around, but he could still see ahead of him. He gazed into the weird reflection. There was a purple lady staring back at him, with four eyes wide open in confusion. Two of them were black, but the top two were clouded over, like they couldn’t see properly.  
  
“Yeah, that’s me. _I think._ Where are you?” He tried to ask. “_Who_ are you?”  
  
“I’m Lapis. Lapis Lazuli. Where are _you?”_  
  
“I think… I’m inside you.” He said.  
  
“Inside me? What does that… mean?” She asked.  
  
“I- I don’t know! This has never happened to me before!” He shouted.  
  
Neither of them seemed to notice that they had the same voice. That they were using _the same mouth._  
  
“Steven!” Garnet yelled angrily, sprinting up to him.  
  
They turned to face her, and both of them were equally stunned.  
  
“S-Steven…” She repeated, dropping her fighting stance, her gauntlets fizzling out.  
  
“Garnet!” He shouted. “You… You’re not going to hurt me.” He felt his body shout angrily. “I won’t let you hurt us!”  
  
“Steven! You have to calm down!”  
  
“_I’m_ in here too! **_ME!_**_ Lapis Lazuli!_ And I’m not trapped any more!”  
  
“Who are you? Where’s Steven?!” Pearl screamed hysterically.  
  
“I’m here!” They screamed. “I- Both of us are! We’re here and we’re _not going back! You can’t keep us trapped anymore!”_  
  
“Dude, no way…” Amethyst gasped.  
  
A giant fist of water burst out of the ocean, ready to smash into the Crystal Gems. But it collapsed just before reaching them, water splashing harmlessly on the sand. “No! I don’t want to hurt them! I… but they hurt _me!_ I… I… I just want to _leave!_ I- _We’re going home!_”  
  
The water parted for both of them, and they sprinted off into the ocean, the passage collapsing before the Crystal Gems could follow.  
  
“Steven!” The gems screamed. “No!”  
  
It was too late. He was gone, and so was Lapis.  
  
“Dude, like, what even. Just what even? They were fused.” Amethyst said.  
  
“Okay. Okay.” Pearl paced up and down the beach, all but pulling her own hair out in worry. “What are we going to do? Garnet, what are we going to do?”  
  
“I don’t think she’s listening, P.” Amethyst sighed.  
  
Garnet couldn’t hear anything right now. She was sitting cross legged on the beach, staring at her hands. Seemingly having a conversation with them.  
  
“Steven’s out there! That… that _thing_ has him! She has my baby!”  
  
“Didn’t you hear her, Pearl? She’s not a thing, she’s Lapis.” Amethyst glared. “Still gonna whop her good, it’s just…”  
  
“It was just supposed to be a mirror! It _shouldn’t_ be able to talk! She shouldn’t have been sapient in there!” Pearl shot back. “Don’t try to blame me for this. I couldn’t have known that-”  
  
“I know where they are.” Garnet said, suddenly standing up, interrupting their discussion.  
  
“Where?!” Pearl asked.  
  
“Mask Island.” She said, turning to the house.  
  
“Excellent! Then let’s-”  
  
“I’m going _alone._” Garnet said, firmly.  
  
“Uh, what?” Amethyst asked.  
  
“Steven and Lapis fused, and neither of them know what is going on.” Garnet explained. “It was an accident, both of them were scared. And now they’re alone out there, lost, with no answers.”  
  
Garnet pressed her hands close to her heart. Where her heart would be, anyway. “I _know_ what that’s like. I’ll talk to them.”  
  
“But don’t we gotta poof Lapis and save Steven?” Amethyst asked.  
  
“We’re not fighting.”  
  
“But-” Pearl protested.  
  
“I know you’re worried about Steven. But to be honest with you, _every_ possible future in which the two of you come end in disaster. They get scared off, or they poof all of us, or we poof them and hurt Steven… I could go on, but there’s not a lot of time.”  
  
“Okay, Garnet.” Pearl sighed. “We trust you.”  
  
“I’ll be back soon. With both of them.”

* * *

“I… What _are_ we?” They stopped, catching their breath on a lush island somewhere. There were some geodes jutting out of the rocks, glimmering from the reflection of the moonlight. “I think we’re… a fusion? How? _I’m_ a gem, and… _I’m_ a human, or… No, is that the other way around?”  
  
“No, I… We have two gems. But… Lapis, you’re cracked. I-I can help, I have… healing powers? Wait, how am I gonna lick my own back? Ew, what? No, wait, go back, please. We’re not taking this seriously enough! We’re _fused!_ This is bad, this is bad… I mean, Opal was fine, but what if I end up like Sugilite?! Oh, of course the Crystal Gems fused! That’s, like, their whole thing, apart from keeping innocent gems prisoner, I…”  
  
They took a deep breath.  
  
“Okay. Okay, calm down. If we calm down, maybe we can work this out. Just… concentrate on unfusing.” They sighed. “This is just… it’s so… Is it so bad? I- We mean, it wasn’t intentional, but gems fusing is a thing gems can do- but it’s wrong. Normal gems don’t _fuse_ that’s just _wrong._ We know it’s _wrong_ but- but this is Earth. It’s a forgotten planet. The only gems here are _Crystal Gems_ and they’re definitely not gonna judge us.”  
  
They took another deep breath, and came to a realisation. A horrible realisation. They could not unfuse.  
  
“I’m trapped. I finally got out of that horrible mirror, and… and I’m still trapped. But hey, it’s not _so_ bad is it? Because if there was anyone I wanted to be trapped with, it would be the one person who talked to me. Who tried to set me free. Now we’re both… trapped together.” They sighed. “Wait! Hold on, I know! Rose had a healing fountain, we took Amethyst there a few days ago. I almost- I- Rose! Rose… Rose… Rose is… Ow, my- our heads, uh, head, I… What’s wrong with Rose? They never told you? Us? I…”  
  
A puddle of water sprung to life in front of them, showing a memory of Rose Quartz, cleaving through gems with a pink sword. Pearl was beside her, holding a flag. The symbol of the Crystal Gems. The rebellion.  
  
“Rose… I’m not… I…”  
  
They shook their head, the reflection shimmering away.  
  
“I… We can feel, Steven. I can feel inside you. It’s just you here. You’re a Rose Quartz, but you’re not _the_ Rose Quartz. She’s… she’s gone.”  
  
“I… I never knew any of this stuff about Rose… The gems always told me about how great she was, but they never… She wasn’t great, was she? She fought a war. We got caught up in that war.”  
  
A different memory rippled into focus in front of them. It was of Lapis, landing on Earth. Nothing needed to be said. Steven could feel all of her thoughts, her feelings. He felt the pain as Lapis was poofed, the desperation as she tried to convince her former allies that no, no, she wasn’t a Crystal Gem, she was a loyal Homeworld gem-  
  
The fear, when everyone left. The sour song that tried to drive her mad, but she didn’t have a form for it to affect. The brief glimmer of hope when Pearl found her thousands of years later, which soon turned to resignation.  
  
“That song.” They sighed. “Those monsters, they’re… They’re gems, aren’t they? They’re gems, but they were… Wait, monsters?”  
  
There was the rustling of trees behind them, and they tensed up, ready to run.  
  
There was nothing there. They relaxed a little. It was just the wind-  
  
Something smashed into them, knocking them flat on the ground. They scanned around. It was too dark to see anything, and they couldn’t-  
  
Another punch came at them from the side, sending them flying into a tree, right into the Lapis gemstone on their back. They cried out in pain, just _trying_ to focus and locate what was attacking them.  
  
_There._ It was just a faint glimmer, but the moonlight reflected a floating gemstone.  
  
It was a gem monster. No, _a corrupted gem._ An invisible one, at that.  
  
A fist burst out of the ocean and held the invisible gem down. Or, tried to, anyway. Lapis couldn’t concentrate, her gem felt like it was about to break in half, the already severe crack now even worse. And Steven had no control over water.  
  
There was a good side effect, though. The monster was wet, now. It was slightly easier to see, as the moon reflected all of the droplets.  
  
It charged again, and Steven instinctively summoned a bubble to protect himself. Lapis could work with bubbles.  
  
The wall of the bubble became a purplish liquid, held aloft by the force of one hand. They stepped out of it, the liquid passing over them as though they weren’t even there. They launched it at the corrupted gem as it pounced at them once again.  
  
It became trapped in the bubble, the purple liquid far too thick for it to swim through, as it was held in the air by their combined power.  
  
“Hah! Got you.” They laughed. “Uh… what do we do now? I can’t… actually… we don’t have any weapons. We can’t use water, that hurts too much.”  
  
“I’ll back you up!” A voice shouted from the forest. They tensed up again, almost losing their magical grip on the bubble.  
  
A fist missile came through the trees, exploding on contact with the monster. The bubble splashed to the ground, leaving behind a small, smooth blue gem.  
  
“_That_ was amazing, you two.” Garnet grinned, as she knelt down to bubble the gem.  
  
They froze, wanting to run away again. “She’s not here for us, she just saved us.” They tried to reassure themselves. “I don’t trust her. She knew I was in there and she didn’t let me out. I… I mean, I kind of _trust_ her because we have Steven’s gem but I still don’t like her-”  
  
“Hey.” Garnet said, interrupting their panicked monologue. “Let’s talk.”  
  
She dismissed her gauntlets, as a show of non agression. She sat down on the beach, looking out at the waves.  
  
“So.” She began, as they stood next to her. They were still tense, still _itching_ to flee. “Who are you?”  
  
“I… We don’t… _know._ Garnet, I don’t know what this is and I can’t fix it, I- We’re _stuck._ We’re… _trapped._”  
  
She said nothing for a few moments, instead just breathing steadily. She tapped her visor, and it vanished. Three eyes met four.  
  
They sighed, and knelt down on the ground, straightening out their skirt. They didn’t even realise they _had_ a skirt. Or… they did, subconsciously. It had to be Lapis’. They hadn’t really _looked_ at themselves yet. Steven’s shirt was stretched around their torso, pushed just under where Lapis’ gem was, and resting just above where Steven’s gem was.  
  
“Let me tell you a story, first. I didn’t want to share this until your- until Steven’s next birthday, but… It’s important.”  
  
“What’s a birthday?” Some part of them wondered quietly.

* * *

Garnet told them both. The story of how Ruby and Sapphire met. How Ruby tried to save Sapphire, how they both fled, and how they formed Garnet.  
  
Steven was completely enraptured, listening with star filled eyes. Lapis was… less so. She felt bad for them, actually. She could… relate to the Sapphire, in a way. She thought she was valuable to her Diamond, but when it came down to it, she was discarded like trash.  
  
It didn’t completely dispel Lapis’ feelings of hatred toward Garnet. She was a Crystal Gem. She was part of the _reason_ she ended up in the mirror in the first place, and for all her foresight, she never even knew that Lapis was there, still mentally intact, still silently pleading for freedom in the void of the Pearl’s gem.  
  
Even when Steven woke her up, she was the first to try and take her back, to try and lock her away again.  
  
But she knew more about her, now. Something… relatable. And if Steven trusted her, Lapis would try to.  
  
“Wow! So… I had no idea. All this time, you were a _fusion?_ I mean, it’s obvious in hindsight. Even I can tell from just a brief look back through our memories…”  
  
Garnet glowed and split apart, falling into two new gems. “Hello.” The blue one- Sapphire- waved, a small smile on her face. Her eyes- eye was obscured by hair. She had a poofy, frilly dress, a stark contrast from her red partner. _She_ had the source of Garnet’s hair, plus a headband. She didn’t have any more clothes than she needed to, clearly a warrior.  
  
“Hey.”  
  
“Oh my _gosh._” Steven screamed. Lapis was far more contained, keeping them rooted to the ground. They ended up falling forward, Steven attempting to rush forward and hug them both.  
  
“Such is fate.” Sapphire silently laughed to herself.  
  
“So, uh… I’m Ruby.” Ruby grinned. “Aw, geez… We wanted this to be a birthday present for ya, Steven. But then… _this_ happened.”  
  
“I… We’d like for it to _not_ happen any longer.” They folded their arms.  
  
Ruby and Sapphire looked at each other knowingly.  
  
“We can help you _stabilise_ yourselves.” Sapphire said.  
  
“We can help you enjoy being _you._” Ruby said.  
  
“But splitting up is something the two of you will have to figure out on your own.” Sapphire said. “I… cannot predict when that will be. I don’t know _anything_ about you. You’re too much of an anomaly. I don’t even know your name.”  
  
“Our name…” They hummed to themselves. “How did you become ‘Garnet’?”  
  
“I’unno.” Ruby shrugged. “That name just… felt _right._”  
  
“So what feels right to you? What should we call you?” Sapphire asked.  
  
They rolled over, looking up at the stars. “I don’t know. We… don’t _want_ to exist long enough to _have_ a name. But… you’re right, I… we don’t know how long this will last. If we had to choose anything… Charoite. Call me… Charoite. That’s… what I feel like.”  
  
Ruby and Sapphire fused together again, Garnet taking the confused fusions hands into her own. “Charoite.” She said. “Listen. You are not one person, and you are not two people. You’re an _experience._ I… I want to make sure you’re a good experience, so…”  
  
This hesitation seemed alien coming from Garnet, but then again… Steven had never really noticed how _alien_ the gems were to begin with. He knew they weren’t human, but he never considered that they might be from a different planet. And now he knew that planet. Well… not him, but… _Charoite_ knew that planet. A beautiful memory of a symmetrical city from Lapis’ side.  
  
“I’m sorry.” She said.  
  
“I- What?”  
  
“I’m sorry.” She repeated.  
  
“That’s _all_ you have to say?” Charoite growled. “I- We were- _I_ was trapped in a mirror and all you have to say is _sorry?!_”  
  
“Not about the mirror.” Garnet said, catching them off guard. “I’m sorry for scaring Steven, and for trying to take the mirror away when it- No, when _you_ showed sapience. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was so busy looking into the catastrophic futures of the ocean being taken away so Lapis could boost herself to- her home… world.” She said, carefully. Steven knew Homeworld now. There was a bunch of other stuff he knew the gems were keeping from him now. “I didn’t look right in front of me and at the two of you being _friends._ And I’m _sorry._”  
  
“I… We forgive you. Partially.” Charoite sighed. “And I know that the- that Amethyst is mostly innocent as well. But Pearl- _that Pearl…_ She knew I was in there. That we- That _Lapis_ was in that mirror. She knew and she kept me- kept Lapis as a _tool_ anyway.”  
  
“We’ll make it up to you. I know how we can start.” Garnet said. “Come on. Mask Island’s warp pad is this way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Sup.
> 
> Discord: endersass#7192  
Twitter: @endersass


	2. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I guess we're together.

Garnet warped them to Rose’s fountain, which was probably just as well. Charoite wouldn’t have been able to stomach returning to the house right now, not until a _ lot _ of issues were cleared up. Plus, Lapis’ gemstone was pushed to the breaking point, and the pain was great enough that even she was willing to set her feelings on Rose aside, just until they’d healed.  
  
It had only been about a week since Steven had first been here. Amethyst got badly cracked, so they brought her here to heal her. And shortly after, Steven had healed Connie’s eyes.  
  
“Hey, I just noticed something.” Charoite said, not exactly talking to Garnet. “When Amethyst was cracked, she was- her body was glitching out worse than- Steven, what’s Sanic 2006- I, uh…” They groaned and shook their head. “We can’t both talk at once. We only have the one mouth.”  
  
“I had that problem when I first started, too.” Garnet said. “There’s no ‘trick’. It’s something you’ll work out over time.”  
  
“That’s the thing. I- We- _Lapis_ likes Steven, but neither of me want to be _stuck_ as this thing. Lapis wants to go home, and Steven wants to go Connie- uh, I mean, go be _with_ Connie. We don’t _want_ ‘over time’. We want it to be over _now._”  
  
“Charoite.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah, I-”  
  
“No. Look.” Garnet’s voice was concerned.  
  
The fountain was empty.  
  
“That’s not good.” Charoite groaned. “Where did it all go?”  
  
“I don’t know.” Garnet shrugged. “You tell me.”  
  
“How could _I_ tell you? You’re the Crystal Gem, here. This is a Crystal Gem place. You’d know it better than I would.”  
  
“True.” Garnet nodded. “But I was referring to your hydrokinesis.”  
  
“Oh.” Charoite blinked. “Y-Yeah. Let me search…” They sat down, and concentrated on the water. But it… They looked at the sun. The sweltering sun. Humans and their global warming… The sun likely wasn’t this hot whenever this place was first constructed. “This place was covered in vines before, right?”  
  
Garnet nodded.  
  
“They were likely keeping this place cool and dry. But when they all withered… the water was exposed and… it all evaporated.”  
  
Garnet was silent. She stared at the dried up fountain for what seemed like an eternity. “Damn.” She sighed, finally.  
  
“I- Lapis still needs to heal. S-She’s cracked. It feels like we’re both about to shatter, really…”  
  
“Oh.” Garnet looked at them. “Oh, no… This isn’t good.”  
  
“Wh-What?”  
  
“Just follow me. This is something everyone needs to hear.” Garnet said, walking back to the warp pad. “Look... Don’t worry. I’ll make sure Pearl keeps her mouth shut. I know how she can get sometimes, and she’s just worried about Steven. But keeping this from her wouldn’t be right. So… Come on.”  
  
“B-Back to the house? B-But-”  
  
“After everything is explained and you’re healed… You can go. Flee, if it will make you feel better. I won’t stop you.” Garnet said. “But Pearl and Amethyst deserve to know.”  
  
“Know what? Garnet, what’s-” Charoite asked, a little concerned now.  
  
“Just follow me.” Garnet said, her mouth pressed into a thin line.

* * *

“Hey!” Garnet shouted, as they warped in. The house was empty. “Hm.”  
  
“Good, no one’s-” Charoite breathed a sigh of relief, still reaching out and grasping some of the ocean for comfort.  
  
“They’re in the temple.” Garnet said, holding her hands out, opening the door. “Come on.”  
  
“N-No.” They shivered, seeing all the bubbles floating around in the room. “No, bring them out here. I’m not… going into your rebel harvest chamber.”  
  
“It’s not-” Garnet cut herself off with a sigh. Logically, she reminded herself, it _did_ look like that. “Fine. _Please_ stay here.”  
  
They flopped down onto the couch, wincing in discomfort as a pillow was ripped by Lapis’ jagged crack. “Okay. But if you try anything, just remember that the ocean is right there.” They snarled, then instantly relaxed their face. “Just hurry, Garnet.”  
  
She nodded, and disappeared inside the temple. Charoite was left to look around, and look around they did.  
  
“So, this is where _I_ live. But where did _you_ live?” They asked themselves. “No, that’s right. Gems don’t live like humans. I mean, I- I had a small wing inside Blue Diamond’s palace, I was part of her court after all, but- nothing like _this._”  
  
“Oh! Well… T-This is where I live, anyway.” They stood up, gesturing around. “That’s the kitchen where- I- I don’t feel hungry, actually.” The thought of food made them feel sick. “A-Anyway, this is my closet, where-”  
  
They opened it, and a small statuette fell out. “Oh.” They blinked. “The… moon goddess statue.” They stared at it sadly, both halves sad for different reasons. Steven was sad that he failed his first mission, and Lapis was sad because- She’d been there, before. Before the war. She liked it. She spent a lot of time there, mingling with the Blue Court...  
  
They walked over to the kitchen sink, and filled it with water. It rippled, and showed a memory from long ago. Various gems were gossiping with each other, and Lapis was among them. She looked happy.  
  
“Why did they rebel, then? This… doesn’t look that bad.” They sighed, suddenly filled with anger. “The Crystal Gems don’t really care about other gems. All they care about is the Earth.”  
  
“Y-yeah, but… This place isn’t so bad. I mean… I came from here. I showed you around town, as the mirror.” They said. “I don’t care about humans, Ste- _Well, I do!_”  
  
They choked out in pain, as both personalities fought over the mouth. That discord should have caused them to fall apart violently, but they _still_ stayed trapped in the one body.  
  
“Okay.” They sighed. “I’m sorry. But I really don’t care for the organics here. Nothing on this planet interests me except… Except _you._”  
  
They blushed.  
  
“You freed me, even if we only ended up trapped afterwards.” They sighed.  
  
“...If we get unstuck, will you… go back home?” They asked. They didn’t have an answer.  
  
The temple door finally opened, the three Crystal Gems stepping out. “Gems, _this_ is Charoite.” Garnet announced. The fusion in question was still staring intently at the now overflowing kitchen sink.  
  
“...Hey.” Amethyst mumbled quietly. She avoided eye contact, heading straight for the couch.  
  
Pearl refused to say anything, kneeling down on the floor.  
  
“They’re a fusion of Lapis and Steven.” Garnet said. “And they’re stuck this way indefinitely.”  
  
“Great…” Charoite sighed. “Of course…”  
  
“As far as I know, anyway.” Garnet amended. “My future vision isn’t incredibly accurate when it comes to you, so I have to guess.”  
  
“Now what’s the ‘bad news’ that you had to tell everyone at once, Garnet?” Charoite asked, in no mood to waste any more time.  
  
“Lapis is cracked. And Rose’s healing fountain has dried up, so they can’t heal.” Garnet explained.  
  
“Steven, don’t you have healing powers now?” Amethyst asked.  
  
“I don’t know. Not like this.” They sighed. “Even if I did, I can’t lick my own back, Amethyst.”  
  
“Just shapeshift your tongue.” She shrugged. “Like _this._”  
  
Charoite ignored Amethyst’s gross long tongue, instead sighing in annoyance. “I can’t. I- Lapis was never good at shapeshifting to begin with. Not much need for it, given her job. And she certainly can’t do it while one she’s fourth organic.”  
  
“And definitely not while cracked.” Garnet added.  
  
“Get on with it, Garnet.” Pearl snapped, still sulking on the floor.  
  
“A fusion between a cracked gem and an intact one… isn’t healthy. Not physically, anyway.” She said, looking to Pearl, who seemed to gasp in realisation, coming to the same conclusion as her.  
  
“Is that why I can feel barely anything but pain?” Charoite asked.  
  
“Edgy.” Amethyst scoffed.  
  
Pearl leapt to her feet, worriedly.  
  
“Oh, this is very bad…” Pearl paced back and forth. “Since Lapis is cracked, their fusion is placing a _lot_ of stress on Steven’s gem to compensate. It might- He might even-” She knelt down, placing a hand on their shoulder. “Steven, listen to me. You _have_ to unfuse. Right now.”  
  
“My _name_ is Charoite.” They glared, shoving Pearl backwards. “I thought we’d already established that I _can’t_ unfuse. Not safely.”  
  
“Garnet, there must be _some_ way to stop this.” Pearl pleaded. “S-Some way to… If we take Lapis’ gemstone off, we can bubble it before it shatters, and she’ll poof, and Steven will be safe! Great, yes, that sounds good, let’s do that, ready when you are, Garnet!”  
  
“No.” Garnet folded her arms. “Pearl, like it or not, Charoite is right there. They’re for real.”  
  
“But it’s not _healthy!_ Steven’s life is in danger!”  
  
“You think I don’t know that?!” Charoite snapped. “I _want_ to unfuse! BUT I CAN’T, OKAY?! And you’re _not_ helping.”  
  
“I just came up with a solutio-”  
  
**“YOU CAN’T TRAP ME ANYMORE!”** The entire house rumbled as a thunderous wave struck the shore. “Lapis doesn’t want to be trapped anymore.”  
  
“I know you care about Steven, Pearl.” Garnet said. “But there are _two_ victims right there. And we’re going to help them both. And we need to start by healing Lapis.”  
  
“R-Right.” Pearl nodded shakily. “Because if we don’t, Steven will start to crack. A-And… And… I can’t lose my baby, Garnet!” She wailed, crying into Garnet’s shoulder.  
  
“I don’t trust _any_ of you.” Charoite growled. “Just to make that clear. _Lapis_ never had a reason to, and now, with all of this knowledge… Steven has lost most of his reasons to.”  
  
“You have every right to distrust us.” Garnet said. “There _is_ a lot we kept from Steven. But it was never to keep him in the dark. Everything you know, we would have told him eventually. When he was older, and ready to take these missions seriously.”  
  
“Y-Yeah.” Charoite blinked. “No, I understand that. But I’m thirteen, now. S-Steven is, I mean.”  
  
“Practically the same thing, dude.” Amethyst shrugged.  
  
“Steven, if you have any questions, we’ll answer them the best we can. _Later._ Right now, we _have_ to heal Lapis.” Garnet said.  
  
“Yeah. But how?” Charoite asked.  
  
“Steven _did_ have healing powers.” Garnet said.  
  
“I don’t even know how it works, Garnet. And there’s no telling if it will even work on myself.” They sighed.  
  
“So try.”  
  
“On what?”  
  
Garnet picked up a clean plate, and smashed it onto the floor.  
  
“Garnet!” Pearl shouted.  
  
Charoite knelt down, and spat a glob of spit onto the floor.  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
“I guessed as much.” They sighed.  
  
“Crud.” Amethyst mumbled.  
  
“It’s possible that Lapis’ hydrokinesis has caused his healing power to manifest in a different way.” Pearl said.  
  
“Or maybe he just doesn’t have it anymore.” They said. “It’s probably tied to his emotions, and we’re both feeling exhausted.”  
  
“Take a rest.” Garnet ordered. “It _is_ late. We’ll figure this out.”  
  
“Yeah, I…” They yawned. “I _am_ tired.”  
  
They looked at the bed. The tiny bed, that Steven slept on.  
  
“...Yeah, I’m gonna go rest outside, actually.” They sighed.  
  
“St-” Pearl began, but Garnet cut her off.  
  
“Amethyst, go keep-”  
  
“Don’t you dare say ‘keep an eye on them’.” Charoite growled.  
  
“...Keep them company. Pearl and I will investigate the fountain, just in case.” Garnet said.  
  
“Yeah, sure…” Amethyst sighed. She sounded about as tired as Charoite did.  


* * *

“You wanna eat something?” Amethyst asked. “I mean, it’s like one in the morning, but I bet I could steal us some donuts easily.”  
  
“I don’t think I can stomach food like this.” They groaned. “It’s… disgusting.”  
  
“Ugh. Now you sound like Pearl.” Amethyst rolled her eyes. “I eat food and I’m fine.”  
  
“You’re not normal.”  
  
“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?” Amethyst asked, a rare threatening undertone to her voice.  
  
“It means you’re a _gem_ that eats _food._” Charoite said. “How do you even do it?”  
  
“I shapeshifted myself a digestive system.” She said, proudly. “Well, half a digestive system. I can’t actually make any of the acids, so food just kinda passes through.”  
  
Charoite felt sick just thinking about it.  
  
They laid down on the beach, letting the waves hit their feet.  
  
“What’s fusion _supposed_ to feel like?” They asked.  
  
“Uh, I’unno.” Amethyst shrugged. “To me it just feels like a powerup, when it works.”  
  
“When it works?”  
  
“Yeah, Pearl and I don’t get along too well.” She said. “Opal’s… great, honestly, but she never stays around for too long. And Garnet and I get along _too_ well. Sugilite just takes over, because we’re having too much fun letting loose.”  
  
“Did you ever… fuse with m- with… Rose?”  
  
“...” Amethyst sighed. “Yeah. Once. Sa- uh…” She squinted, looking up at the moon. “Ah, screw it. I guess we’re done keeping things from you. Sardonyx, Pearl and Garnet’s fusion… she’s too much, honestly. One time they fused for a mission, and then just _didn’t_ afterward. Rose tried to talk to her, and she just did that dumb laugh and smacked her away with her hammer. Said she hadn’t been together that long since during the rebellion. Rose and I fused to beat her down. Felt weird.”  
  
“Fusions… aren’t stable, are they?”  
  
“It depends, I guess? Ruby and Sapphire manage. And, hey, look at you two.”   
  
“We’re  _ not _ stable.” Charoite sighed. “We’re still together because we’re  _ stuck _ this way. Not because we want to be. I mean… we  _ trust _ each other, and we want to keep each other safe… And we do feel a little better, but...”  
  
“Yeah, I got nothing.” Amethyst shrugged.  
  
Charoite stared at the water. She flicked a finger, and a wave splashed over them.  
  
Sleep was apparently easy. Steven did it all the time, every night. The idea was inviting, and… they  _ did _ feel mentally exhausted.  
  
The tide rolled in, as they fell deeper and deeper into sleep.  
  
“Woah…” Amethyst gasped, quickly jumping back in surprise.  
  
They floated up, on a bed of water. It was just a floating platform of water, suspended by Lapis’ powers. Then it suddenly twisted around them, becoming a bubble. A nice bubble, for them to rest in.  
  
“Eh.” Amethyst shrugged. “I’ve seen weirder.”  


* * *

Steven was lying on the beach. He sat up and stretched, doing a double take at this skin colour. “Oh!” He laughed. “Lapis! Hey, Lapis!”  
  
“Steven?” A soft voice called out. He saw someone kneeling on the beach, letting the waves wash over her legs. Her eyes were glazed over and her gem was cracked, but she didn’t seem too worried.  
  
“We unfused!” He said, excitedly.  
  
“...Oh. Cool.” Lapis said bluntly, not even turning to face him. “Bye, then.”  
  
“You’re leaving?”  
  
“I don’t belong here, Steven.” She said, letting the water wash over her. She sped away as a wave came in, slamming headfirst into a glass wall. “What the-”  
  
The beach faded out around them and suddenly they were behind a mirror, banging and pleading on the glass and begging to be let out.  
  
“ _ Where _ is your base?” A gem on the outside asked angrily. “Where is your leader? Where is Rose Quartz?”  
  
“I’m not a Crystal Gem!” Lapis cried. “Please… I’m not even meant to _be_ on this planet…”  
  
“It’s not saying anything.” Another gem said, disappointed. Both of the gems vanished into a swarm of butterflies, breaking through the surface of the mirror, completely surrounding them.  
  
Now they were alone on the Galaxy Warp. There was nothing else but an ocean of white butterflies, smashing against the walls of the crystal structure. Pearl stepped through the cloud, a bored expression on her face. She looked different, kind of younger. “Pearl, what are you doing here? What’s going on?” Steven asked.  
  
“Rose keeps running off with her stupid little humans.” She sighed. “Argh, Rose, why don’t you ever understand how it makes _me_ feel? She _used_ to care about me...”  
  
“...What? What is…” His voice was quiet, unwilling to believe what he was hearing. Lapis had heard it before, and she dreaded what came next.  
  
“Oh.” Pearl stopped, noticing the abandoned mirror. “Now, who left _you_ here?” She picked it up, turning it over in her hands. “A shame, it’s broken. I’d hoped to use it to educate Amethyst. Oh, well.”  
  
A swarm of butterflies clouded their vision once again. Both of their emotions were chaotic, dissonant. They _should_ have split up at that point. Fusions can’t stay together unless all parties are in perfect harmony. They need to, quite literally, be on the same wavelength.  
  
But Charoite _didn’t_ split up. Something still held them together. Maybe a deep seeded desire to protect the other? If Steven let Lapis go, she’d be bubbled by the Crystal Gems again, and if Lapis let Steven go, she’d lose her only real friend.  
  
No… It felt… _weirder_ than that.  
  
“We’re still together, aren’t we?” Steven asked.  
  
“I guess so.” Lapis sighed. “This beach is just, like… our head. Or something. And trying to leave just triggers bad memories.”  
  
“Hey, Lapis… Let me try something.”  
  
He licked his hand, and placed it on Lapis’ back. She shivered in disgust, but… The cracks started to recede, slowly. Little by little, she felt better.  
  
“Steven!” She smiled. “You-”  
  
She froze. Steven was on the ground, clutching his gem in pain. He’d removed her pain, but this wasn’t the physical world.  
  
He’d just transferred her pain to himself. His gem was cracking, slowly, as hers was healing.  
  
“Steven!” She shouted, picking him up. “Wake up!”  
  
“Lapis?” He asked, weakly. “Woah… Cool wings… Pretty…”  
  
Her wings? Yes, her wings! She stretched them out now that they were back, and- They were pink. Why were they pink? They’re water wings, not-  
  
Wait. Maybe… they weren’t water wings.  
  
She hugged Steven tight, and wrapped her wings around the both of them. They felt… nice. Comforting. Like someone was hugging them.  
  
Lapis could swear someone was hugging them. Someone… motherly… comforting… It felt so much like…  
  
No. There’s no one else here. It was just the two of them. Lapis wouldn’t let him get hurt again. No more pain. She forced the pain out.  
  
She’d… healed them. Her wings, they were… healing.  


* * *

“Yes!” Charoite laughed, waking up with a loud  _ pop _ of water.  
  
“Whasssaaaa…” Amethyst slurred, rolling over, spitting out a mouthful of sand. “Woah!”  
  
They flexed their new pink wings, laughing and crying with happiness. They flew around in circles, like a happy bird.  
  
A lavender bird soon joined them. “Hey!” It said. “You healed yourself?!”  
  
“Yeah!” Charoite laughed. “Yeah, I… I guess I did. So… the damage is gone.”  
  
“That’s good, though.” Tiny bird form Amethyst said, flapping hard to keep up with the purple fusion.  
  
“Yeah.” Charoite blinked, slowing their flight. They came to a stop atop the temple, landing near the lighthouse. “Yeah, it is. So… _why_ are we still together?”  
  
“Maybe you wanna be?”  
  
“Well, yeah, maybe a little. But…” They squeezed their eyes shut, and concentrated hard. “We can always re fuse later. We _know_ that. Now that the pain is gone… it’s just _us_ and it’s _great._ But we still want the option to separate. And… we can’t.”  
  
“I don’t know, ask Garnet.” Amethyst shrugged.  
  
“Yeah. I plan to.”  
  
“So, you uh… staying around?”  
  
“No. I don’t know.” Charoite sighed. “I still don’t trust any of you. I won’t… try to leave the planet. Not yet. I know the vacuum of space would probably kill us, and even if it doesn’t… Homeworld would. But… I am _not_ a Crystal Gem. I _never_ will be.”  
  
“Yeah… Y’know, that’s fair.” Amethyst said. “I kinda get how you feel. Even when Rose was still around, we’d get into fights about me all the time. I wondered why I was even a Crystal Gem when none of them would take me seriously. Sometimes I actually left.”  
  
“You left?”  
  
“Yeah, I used to run away a lot.” She sighed. “Not like there’s anywhere on this planet I could hide for long, though. Garnet would always find me eventually.”  
  
“That’s like the world’s saddest game of hide and seek.” Charoite scoffed, without any malice. “Where do you go?”  
  
“I don’t know. _Around._” She said, her tone a bit sharper.  
  
“Do you go… back to where you were made?” They asked. Amethyst looked away, not saying anything. “...Lapis made that place, you know. I have… very clear memories of her carving it out.”  
  
She ran off. They didn’t try to stop her.  
  
…  
  
“Hey, I- We should at least check out the town. Neither of us want to see the gems right now, and that’s fine, but… Look, I’m really hungr- No, no, no-”  
  
“We can find something. How about ice cream? That’s basically liquid. Yeah, but I don’t want it to… come out the bottom… Yuck.”  
  
“Okay, forget food, but there are at least some cool people in Beach City! We met most of them while we… Lapis was in the mirror, but there’s no harm in meeting them again! Since no one’s met Charoite! Yeah, let’s-”  
  
“I know. I know, okay? You don’t care about humans. But I think that if we met some, you’d see that they’re not that bad.”  
  
“I… Maybe. Fine, sure, it’s not like we have anything else to do.”

* * *

Garnet and Pearl were currently inside the burning room, Garnet concentrating hard on something while Pearl paced around, visibly stressed.  
  
“We have to figure _something_ out.” Pearl said. “If Steven can’t separate from Lapis, he might not get his healing powers back. Then what? What are we going to do about the Geode? How can we restore the fountain? What happens the _next_ time someone gets cracked? What do we _do,_ Garnet?!”  
  
“Pearl…” Garnet sighed. “I know you miss Steven. I know you’re worried about him. But you _have_ to accept that he is part of Charoite now.”  
  
“You’re right! I’m sure the geode won’t be a problem for a while, we just have to concentrate on separating them!” Pearl laughed.  
  
“No, Pearl…” Garnet sighed. “Charoite wouldn’t be as stable as they are if they both didn’t want to remain as Charoite. Lapis is… panicked, but she really, truly cares about Steven. And Steven… he wants to protect Lapis from _us._ Mostly you, Pearl.”  
  
“What?” Pearl recoiled, offended. “Lapis is _dangerous._ She’s a danger to the Earth, and she’s a danger to Steven. Surely he can see that.”  
  
“You can’t know that, Pearl. I can’t predict her being a dangerous foe, at least not unprompted.”  
  
“And what  _ would _ prompt her?”  
  
“You, Pearl.” Garnet sighed. “And at least half of these futures are warranted. They’re unlikely to happen, but still, you deserve most of these.”  
  
“Me? What did _I_ do?”  
  
“Maybe you should figure that out, first.” Garnet said, leaving the temple. “If you can’t set your animosity aside, you can say goodbye to Steven.”  
  
“What?” Pearl shrieked. “W-Wait, Garne-”  
  
Garnet closed the door, setting off on her search for Charoite. She just hoped her vision was correct and they had really healed themselves or the Earth would be ruptured by the Geode.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter went through some changes. I had to cut a lot of it out because I was forcing way too much setup for later drama into it.  
Lapis just feels a lot of resentment towards Pearl, and Pearl is too worried about Steven to take a step back and think rationally about Lapis.
> 
> Discord: endersass#7192  
Twitter: @endersass


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